Auckland the least-safe city in Australasia
The Committee for Auckland with Deloitte and Tātaki Auckland Unlimited released "the State of the City" report this morning, providing a snapshot of how New Zealand's biggest city is going – and it's not looking good on the safety front.
"Auckland ranks only 124th in safety, marking a three-year decline and positioning it among the lowest-performing peer cities on safety and bottom within Australasia," a statement announcing the results said.
It comes as the new Government has vowed to take a tough approach to crime.
Other weak spots for Auckland included investment innovation and also traffic, which will come as no surprise to some commuters.
"In the innovation area, Auckland's data centre performance falls within the bottom five in the APAC region, despite the growing importance of investment in technology infrastructure.
"The city's traffic performance, measuring commute time, ride dissatisfaction, network inefficiencies, and CO2 emissions, worsened since 2022 with the city in the bottom group of cities Auckland compares with.
"[And] Auckland is 59th out of 183 cities in terms of overall socioeconomic development, and second to last among peer cities."
However, Tāmaki Makaurau does better in other areas.
"Auckland has achieved 5th place for work-life balance out of 25 global cities measured, praised for its relaxed vibe and friendliness.
"It has also reclaimed its spot among the top 30 most student-friendly cities in the world, ranking 29th out of 160 cities," Committee for Auckland director Mark Thomas said.
The report also found that Auckland has been recognised as among the world's top 100 sporting cities, while spending in the city centre by international visitors was above pre-Covid levels for the first time since 2019.
"Auckland is up one place to 9th among the 30 global cities measured for progress embedding the circular economy," the report said.
The report is a collation of recently-published indicators.
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Poll: Is the increase in disability parking fines fair?
In October, the fine for parking in a designated mobility car park without a permit has jumped from $150 to $750—a 400% increase!
The goal is to keep these spaces open for those who truly need them. Do you think this big increase in the fine is fair? Share your thoughts below.
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89.3% Yes, it's fair
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9.9% No, it's unreasonable
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0.8% Other - I'll share below
Smoke in Mt Wellington
Smoke has been seen coming from the crater of the Auckland maunga Mt Wellington.
Images of the smoke began appearing on social media on Friday afternoon.
Around 1.45pm, Fire and Emergency (Fenz) shift manager Josh Pennefather told the NZ Herald a crew was fighting a fire of about 60 square metres in size.
”It’s spreading up hill … [but] there’s no property at risk at this stage,” Pennefather said.
Six fire trucks were in attendance working to contain a grass fire that's spreading up the maunga.
A helicopter was on its way to assist firefighting efforts, he added.
At 2pm, Pennefather shared that the fire was contained and they were working to extinguish it, including “keeping an eye on a whole bunch of hot spots“.